Many regard the founder of the Jewish faith to be Abraham because of the widespread belief that Abraham, as a boy, was the first to realise that the idols of his people had no power and was therefore the first to believe in just one God. However, this is not supported by the biblical account. In fact, the Bible never explicitly credits Abraham with monotheistic beliefs. Bruce Feiler (
Abraham) says that probably less than one per cent of the stories told about Abraham appear in the Bible.
Others may regard the true founder of Judaism to be Moses, who is traditionally considered to have lived around 1400 BCE, because he is often credited with writing the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.
However, many scholars regard the stories of Abraham and Moses as creations of the first millennium BCE. They point out that the Bible also tells us that the people of Israel (the northern kingdom) were, throughout its history, polytheistic in their religious beliefs. Even in the south, in Judah, the people worshipped many gods until at least the time of King Hezekia (729-686 BCE), who made the first real attempt, in historic times, to impose a monotheistic religion. Judaism is largely defined by the Hebrew Bible, and we now know that much of the Bible was written by the 'Deuteronomist' during the reign of King Josiah ( about 640-609 BCE). The biblical analyses have been confirmed by archaeological evidence. On this evidence, Judaism originated in the kingdom of Judah, located west of the Dead Sea, during the seventh century BCE.